Survival mode on the run isn’t reserved for Ironman courses
If you've ever felt like demons were chasing you on the marathon maybe running with giant blades at your back could help you prepare for your next Ironman
It’s been said that Ironman is the toughest sporting event on earth. By the time your legs hit the run there is a certain buzzing in your head that seems to come from nowhere but won’t go away.
Putting in the miles to prepare for the epic distance is one element of training. The mental toughness required to keep pushing when the body screams at us to stop is a unique mental skill that is hard to replicate and therefore prepare for. But a French rapper may have just tested the optimal way to train your physical and mental skills when your body and brain go into survival mode on the final leg of the race.
24 hours in survival mode
French rapper Rilès (Rilès Kacimi) ran for 24 hours on a treadmill with rotating rotating blades behind him in an extreme way to promote his latest album, Survival Mode.
With nearly two million YouTube subscribers, Rilès wanted a unique way to combine his passions for running, music and art. So he set up a glass case in the Espace Commines in Paris, stepped onto a treadmill and ran for 24 hours straight, all while having three rotating blades behind him.
The challenge began at noon on February 8 and wrapped up exactly 24 hours later. By the end, Rilès had covered 205.21 kilometres (127.5 miles), with more than 100,000 fans watching the live stream. And to make things even more extreme? He ran without any music or entertainment. Only the ominous presence of the three rotating blades, and noise of his own two feet.
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Many viewers wondered how Rilès managed to run non-stop for an entire day without going to the bathroom. The secret? A black-curtain crew would occasionally surround him with a blanket, allowing him to grab a bottle and take care of business, without taking too much time off the treadmill.
Rapper runs a killer marathon too
While Rilès is best known for his music, he’s also a serious runner, boasting a 2:55 marathon best, which he set in Florence, Italy, in 2023.
Though he didn’t set out to break the official Guinness World Record for the longest 24-hour treadmill run, (264.52 km, set by Norwegian ultra-runner Bjørn Tore Kronen Taranger in 2018) his feat was more about pushing things to the extreme rather than records. The buzz surrounding the challenge was the perfect high-energy promo for his album, SURVIVAL MODE, which dropped last month.
Hopefully David Goggins doesn’t take this idea and run with it.